Korea-South: Health Insurance Body to Sue Tobacco Makers

Source from:  The Korea Times  12/19/2013

The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) said Wednesday that it will file a suit against cigarette manufacturers as early as next year.

In a blog post, NHIS President Kim Jong-dae wrote: "The NHIS will file a suit against tobacco companies to recover medical costs which it has incurred due to smoking-related diseases."

An official at the NHIS confirmed the plan. "This is the official stance of the NHIS. We plan to file a suit against tobacco makers as early as in the first half of next year," the official said. She added that the NHIS is now preparing the relevant legal paperwork.

The defendants will likely be KT&G, the country's largest tobacco maker, and other foreign cigarette companies that sell cigarettes here.

"The NHIS will sue these companies before a decision is reached in a compensation suit filed by an individual which is pending before the Supreme Court," Kim said.

The planned legal action will mark the first time that a public agency in Korea has sued a cigarette maker.

Kim said the Supreme Court has acknowledged that smoking can cause lung cancer. "The NHIS paid some 43.2 billion won for treatment of patients suffering from the disease in 2012," he said.

If the insurance body seeks compensation for money spent on treatment over a number of years, he said, the amount sought in a litigation settlement could climb into the "trillion-won level."

Kim has asserted that tobacco makers are responsible for health insurance payments for smoke-related diseases, which stood at 1.69 trillion won in 2009.

He also pledged that the insurance body will take all steps necessary to establish legal grounds for pursuing other suits against other tobacco makers.

The current legal basis for the NHIS's rights to claim compensation comes from the National Insurance Act. This stipulates that the NHIS can seek compensation from external parties (tobacco makers) for expenses caused by them. Enditem